This is someone treating military action as a game - staggering lack of seriousness at a very serious time

Incredibly telling Kemi Badenoch interview on Today:
- can’t say what she’d actually want UK forces to do
- no idea what objective her proposed military action is to achieve
- hides from reality that single biggest constraint on British military = her govt’s defence cuts

Related:

I’ve spent years, decades, obsessing over the Bush Administration’s Iraq WMD lies, writing about them, debunking them.

I can think of no lie about Iraq WMDs told by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld et al that comes even close to the enormity and absurdity of this lie from Donald Trump.

Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of our democracy. But right now, they’re under attack.

Several Republican-controlled states have redrawn their congressional maps to give themselves an unfair advantage in the midterm elections.

Why is it I'm thinking of the 'Judgement at Nuremberg' section of @warmovietheatre.com when I see this quote?

Reform fury as someone else wins by Our By-election Editor Tim Shipsink The losing candidate in the Gorton and Denton by-election, Matt Goodwhinge, has demanded an immediate re-run of the election on the grounds that he lost comprehensively to someone else. "It's totally unfair and rigged," said Goodwhinge. "I shouldn't be required to sit there and suck it up, just because I lost." Mr Goodwhine continued, *I can't believe that all those voters I demonised failed to back me. Especially after I was endorsed by Tommy Robinson and ten million Russian bots on X. "We have clear evidence of family voting, where people voted in order for me to stop deporting their families." Mr Badloser concluded. "I'm the victim of colour prejudice. They didn't vote for me simply because I'm not green." Reform leader Mr Farage, speaking from a sun lounger on a rock near the Chagos Islands said, "It's a tragedy that the people of Manchester won't see Matt in Westminster, but my constituents don't see me in Clacton either." PLUMBER DEFEATS MATT GOODWIN Photo of Hannah Spencer with speech bubble saying… I've stopped the cock

Beautiful from Private Eye on the massive toddler-tantrum that Matt Goodwin and Reform are having, because they got whooped in Gorton and Denton.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch absolutely desperate to get the UK dragged in to Trump and Netanyahu’s war.

Starmer might not float everyone's boat but thank God he's Prime Minister not Kemi Badenoch.
Badenoch as PM would be catastrophic for the country. Overwhelming self confidence is irrelevant if you have the judgement of a house brick.
#PMQs

this the FT not The Onion

Janan Ganesh. (a biweekly columnist and associate editor for the FT. He writes on international politics)

I *think* Kemi Badenoch is currently arguing for a first strike approach to nuclear war.

NOEM: I would disagree with the judge

CROCKETT: I'm sure you would, but can you tell me whether or not you have a law degree?

NOEM: A what?

CROCKETT: A law degree

NOEM: No I do no-

CROCKETT: Okay

What's the best case outcome here? Israel and the US kill enough people that Iran descends into a brutal civil war? Apart from all the other problems that would cause, even some Tories have spotted that isn't going to help keep immigration down.

So unbelievably stupid.

He's obviously right. The Tory position on this is nuts. Why on earth would you want to tie yourself to a President who is clearly not capable of rational decision making and has no idea what he's doing?

It's already not a popular conflict + it's only going to get less popular if it drags on.

March 4, 2026 - Rubio says he never said what he said, as Trump re-ups regime change as his goal Simon's live update on the US government's continuing, contradictory efforts to explain why it attacked Iran, and what it wants to achieve. For James O'Brien's programme on the UK'...

Mine earlier today with @mrjamesob.bsky.social on @lbc.co.uk as we continue to track the Trump administration's inability to keep its own story straight about why it attacked Iran, and what it hopes to achieve.

🎧: audioboom.com/posts/886933...

Russia says ready to ship 9.5 million oil barrels to India amid supply crisis India has witnessed a vulnerability in terms of its crude reserves, following the breakout of the Middle East crisis. At present, it has crude stocks covering 25 days of demand along with low inventor...

Remember when Trump promised that India would stop buying Russian oil? Well it turns out that Trump's decision to bomb Iran has had the exact opposite effect, leading to a surge of Russian oil being sent to India. www.indiatoday.in/india/story/...

We have always been at war with Eastasia.

Ansari: "The DOJ was caught red handed withholding explosive and credible FBI witness interviews of a woman who accused Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her when she was a minor. Shouldn't we hold hearings on that? Shouldn't Pam Bondi be here, forced to testify about why she's violating the law?"

"It's the proudest I've been of our Prime Minister in a long time."

@mrjamesob.bsky.social believes Trump's public criticism of Keir Starmer could actually be a good thing.

I suspect @raskin.house.gov will enter the history books as one of the few heroes of America's Trump era.

I’ll have some of that.

Hegseth: "We are only four days into this and the results have been incredible."

- Middle East engulfed in regional war
- 11 countries attacked by Iran
- Oil & gas prices skyrocketing
- Strait of Hormuz now a conflict zone
- Terrorism threat raised across the world
- No sign of Iran regime collapse

That's a quote that will have been greeted with a near-audible sigh of appreciation from fairly large parts of the Labour benches.

Starmer in the Commons when challenged by Tory MP Gareth Bacon about UK actions over Iran: "Hanging on to President Trump's latest words is not the special relationship."

If you're opposition leader and there's a crisis, you sometimes have to just take one of the team and spend a week looking vaguely supportive and statesperson-like.

Starmer: "Moments like this define a leader of the opposition."

Starmer replies: “I’m sorry she’s not interested in how people caught in the region will get home. I think for the vast majority of people watching this PMQs, that will be the single most important thing on their minds.”

Badenoch's tone feels a bit misjudged for the situation. A bit partisan given there are huge numbers of Britons caught in a war zone. After Starmer sets out the latest evacuation plans, Badenoch says he has not answered her question.

Excellent question. Is this just another Tory choosing Twitter twattery over science & expertise?

Badenoch walked right into that: "I wasn't asking about evacuations" looks extremely callous and indifferent when UK citizens are being evacuated from the regions